In prison, he's been keeping busy and has taken multiple classes, his GED, and participated in AA meetings. He also mentors other prisoners and helps with multiple programs for at risk youth. He has also had a spiritual awakening while in prison and says that he now lives his life for Christ. He also says that he's found love and married a girl named Melinda.

Nicholas Markowitz was a high school theater kid with big dreams, but his older half-brother Benjamin was running around the seedy underbelly of his West Hills neighborhood in Los Angeles, selling drugs to kids. The feud between the brothers escalated to a point where Benjamin owed Jesse James Hollywood, a mid-level drug dealer, about $1,200.

On August 6, 2000, Hollywood and two associates spotted the teenager walking on a street near his home in broad daylight. They abducted him in a parking lot and tied him up with duct tape. The men then took his pager, wallet, valium, and weed. He was shuttled between homes for a couple of days with promises that he'd be freed soon.

In court, Hollywood testified that he didn't orchestrate the murder and regretted an impulsive decision to take the teenager. He fled after the slaying and spent years on the run in Colorado, the Mojave Desert, and other parts of the country before being arrested in Brazil four years later. The Markowitz family won a civil lawsuit against Hollywood and his accomplices.